Ex-British Party Leader Is Pulled Into Trump Campaign Inquiry

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Nigel Farage, right, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party, with Donald J. Trump during a presidential campaign event in Jackson, Miss., in August 2016.CreditCreditDamon Winter/The New York Times

LONDON — Nigel Farage, the former leader of the U.K. Independence Party, ridiculed a published report on Thursday that suggests United States investigators think he may be able to shed light on any possible collusion between Russia and Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign.

Mr. Farage was responding to an article in The Guardian newspaper on Thursday that said he was a “person of interest” in the F.B.I.’s investigation into Moscow’s contacts with representatives of Mr. Trump’s campaign, including Michael T. Flynn, who briefly served as President Trump’s national security adviser.

The Guardian, citing unidentified sources, said Mr. Farage was not accused of wrongdoing but had “raised the interest” of the F.B.I. because of his relationships with the Trump campaign and with Julian Assange, the head of WikiLeaks.

American officials say Russian hackers working for the government obtained documents from the Democratic Party and provided them to WikiLeaks to damage the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Under Mr. Farage, the far-right, anti-immigrant UKIP played an influential role in a referendum last year in which British voters supported withdrawing from the European Union, commonly known as Brexit.

The investigators are examining whether Mr. Farage was a link between Mr. Assange and Trump advisers including Roger Stone, who has acknowledged being in contact with Guccifer 2.0, a hacker who is thought to be an agent of Russian military intelligence.

“This hysterical attempt to associate me with the Putin regime is a result of the liberal elite being unable to accept Brexit and the election of President Trump,” Mr. Farage said in a statement to The New York Times.

“For the record I have never been to Russia, I’ve had no business dealings with Russia in my previous life and I have appeared approximately three times on RT in the last 18 months,” referring to the Russian television network that has been accused of serving as a propaganda organ for the Kremlin.

He added that a March meeting he had with Mr. Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where the Australian has received political asylum, “was organized for me by LBC Radio with a view to conducting an interview.” Mr. Farage has hosted a show on the independent radio station in London.

Mr. Farage said that the Guardian article made him laugh. “I consider it extremely doubtful that I could be a person of interest to the F.B.I., as I have no connections to Russia,” he said.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 16 of the New York edition with the headline: Ex-Leader of British Party Scoffs at Report on Russia Ties. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe